[PRCo] Re: Museum Policy - Continued

[Dennis F. Cramer]

Good Morning Fellow List Members:

    It has been very interesting reading your thoughts on museums and their
missions.  Luckily, we live in a land where there can be different concepts
and also one where museums have the right to succeed or fail.  It is not
what museums, but rather who controls the agenda.  Museums are not static
displays, nor places to get every car running no matter what.  They are
places run by people, for people to enjoy and to learn.  The trick here is
to get our guests to learn without knowing they are learning.
    History is about people and how they affected events and how events
affected people.  The peak of the electric era was from about 1890 to 1920
and then came the declines.  What was life like then?  Why did so many
communities invest in this new technology only to find themselves out of an
awful lot of money so quickly?  (How many people do you know that lost money
in the Dot.Com era?)  It was a new and exciting era to the people that had
lived in the nineteenth century.  But newer and more exciting things came
along so quickly that the bubble was burst.
    The docents that present the whole picture do a much better job of
saving that glossed over look we often refer to.  It is not about the
equipment.  As Fred said several weeks ago---An elderly lady told him about
riding this car everyday in McKeesport as a child-----It was Philadelphia
5326!   I have had more people tell me that of various cars.  I am not going
to stand there and argue.  At some point in my presentation, I give a brief
history of where the car operated to the riders.  No need to embarrass a
guest.
    Do I teach our docents to watch out for railfans? Yes.  Our we actually
all railfans?  Not necessarily.  Some of us are more interested in history.
But our docents have to be wary of a guest trying to guide the tour into
details about motors, controllers, etc.  The rest of the tour could care
less.  Our people have to know how to control that and I think our guys &
gals do a pretty good job here at PTM of teaching the lesson without the
teaching being overly evident.  It is all in the presentation.
    Is every one of our docents perfect?  No, but show me someone who is.
As a professional educator and musician, I keep striving for perfection,
paying attention to all the little details while still seeing the big
picture.  Does perfection exist to us in my profession?  No.  Will we stop
seeking it?   No.
    Please continue the healthy conversation.  A good talk show host
agitates to get people to express their opinion.  Opinions are not facts.
Be glad you live in a land where one can express themselves, I certainly
have been.
    Oh by the way, I am charged with instructing our docents and designed
the Docent Manual used at PTM  with a lot of help from Ed Lybarger and
Raymond Windle.
    Have a great day.

Dennis F. Cramer--Teacher-Trombonist-Historian-Conductor
www.geocities.com/armconband